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Indefinite Success: Religion and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Geneva
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
This essay will argue that in eighteenth-century Geneva the religion of most of the lay elite followed the French pattern: learning and fashion alike steered them to a relaxed attitude to religious practice, and a mildly sceptical view of doctrine. It will be shown, however, that Geneva’s clergy – not securely within the elite -often tried to resist any softening of Geneva’s strict rules and social constraints even when they were keen to embrace scientific enlightenment; further, no overarching account of popular religion in Geneva can convincingly be propounded. One reason for this is that Geneva’s popular classes, unlike those of France, were dominated by literate, prosperous townspeople, many of whom still self-consciously lived out their protestant heritage, but some of whom found more meaning in radical, almost-secular politics.
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References
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